iKon Slant Safety Razor Review

The iKon Slant Razor is finally available; a release that wet shaving aficionados have eagerly awaited for some time.

I was excited to try it for the first time, as my only previous experience of a slant safety razor was a 39c Merkur slant, which I used a couple of times previously; finding it very aggressive and not particularly forgiving, although it did gave me a close shave!

The iKon Slant was designed by iKon CEO, Gregory Khan and he promised an aggressive shave that was more forgiving than the Merkur razors, so I was keen to try it.

The iKon Slant Design

The 3 piece, all stainless steel construction is robust, to say the least, and the large head and thick, longer handle, make it a pleasure to hold.

The robustness of the razor takes nothing away from the finish - I could find no rough edges, blemishes or tiny scratches, it looks and feels like a quality piece of shaving kit. It even has the branding logo on the end of the handle, which is a nice touch.

The reason the iKon Slant head is larger than most safety razors is that it covers the corners of the blade, which I saw as a negative at first, worrying that blade alignment would be difficult.

However, I didn't have any difficulty in aligning the blade, using the technique of loading the blade by holding the head in my hand, loading the blade, then the safety bar and I screwed the handle in vertically, holding the safety razor's head in one hand and screwing the handle in with the other.

I attempted the load 5 times and found that 4 out of 5 times I loaded the blade perfectly, without any real need for adjustment. It is worth checking after assembling to make sure the blade is 100% seated correctly before you shave.

The handle is a Bulldog II design; thick stainless steel with a machine tooled handle - such a sure handling experience that I reckon I could have covered my hands in Vaseline and still enjoyed my shave!

Because of the three piece design, if you find the handle is a bit heavy for you, or you simply have a favourite other-brand handle, it's interchangeable with several other makes of handle. I tried it with my favourite Muhle R106 (black non slip) handle it worked a treat with that handle too. I will, however, be using the Bulldog II handle from now on, as it is such a pleasure both to use and to look at!

Shaving with the iKon Slant

I set aside plenty of time and gave myself three passes; one with the grain, one from left to right and finally one against the grain.

I lathered up well between passes using the run of the mill Taylor's Coconut Cream and despite it being a new razor that I hadn't handled before, with a new blade and a design of head that I had only tried a couple of times previously, some two years ago, I didn't nick myself once! On top of that, I got a really, really close shave.

I found the shave to be medium aggressive and could hear my stubble crying out under the onslaught, but it was way more forgiving than I thought it would be and I can honestly say that I had no irritation following my first shave.

It's been six hours since I shaved and there is little or no stubble showing so far, and although it was a 3 pass shave, I would have expected to at least feel and hear some kind of roughness on my face by now.

To summarise

The iKon Slant Razor is a great looking piece of kit and the slanted razor head isn't just a gimmick, it gives a really satisfying shave. It's a pleasure to use and gives a medium aggressive, yet extremely forgiving shave.

It doesn't just look good - it's built to last!

Executive Shaving are retailing this luxury safety razor at only £135. I know that value is relative, but it seems to me to be great value, as it's in the Rolls Royce of Razors category and it's built to last a lifetime. Look at it this way, if you shave once a day and you live another 30 years, it'll only cost you a penny a shave! I don't know about you, but I'd happily pay a penny a day to use a razor of this quality. Do yourself a favour, invest in one now, I'm truly confident that you won't be disappointed!

Written by Brian Mulreany,
Sales Director at The Executive Shaving Company.
Telephone: 0141 880 3040
Email: brian@executive-shaving.co.uk